Sceye Valued at $525 Million and Poised for 2025 Commercial Launch
PARIS, Sept. 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- At World Space Business Week (WSBW) today, Sceye, a leading U.S. aerospace company specializing in High-Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS), announced the successful closing of its Series C funding round. The round was led by Mawarid Holding Company ("Mawarid"), a prominent Saudi corporation with an established presence in information and communication technology, satellite, and digital solutions.
Sceye strengthened its balance sheet by closing the Series C funding round, which values the Company at a pre-money valuation of $525 million. This provides sufficient liquidity to fund R&D activities, flight programs and launch the initial commercial operations in 2025.
This strategic alliance continues Sceye's successful partnership strategy, following América Móvil's involvement as the largest investor in their Series B round with a focus on Latin America.
"The Series C round is a critical milestone for Sceye. These funds will accelerate our platform development and commercial roadmap, paving the way for the commercialization of our HAPS technology in 2025. Our partnership with Mawarid opens new territories and market opportunities for our innovative solutions," said Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, CEO and Founder of Sceye.
Ghassan Itani, Assistant Chairman of Mawarid, added, "This partnership reinforces Mawarid's commitment to pioneering technology advancements and delivering digital solutions that serve critical industry sectors. By incorporating HAPS technology, we enhance our position as a comprehensive provider of strategic industry solutions."
This Series C investment announcement follows the success of Sceye's 2024 flight program, where the company achieved a significant milestone by demonstrating perpetual flight capabilities while staying over an area of operation. The test flight proved that Sceye's HAPS can operate continuously, with solar energy powering the system during daylight hours and battery storage ensuring overnight flight.
This achievement signifies the advent of a new infrastructure layer between terrestrial and space systems. It highlights the transformative potential of HAPS technology in expanding connectivity access, managing disaster response, monitoring environmental changes, and detecting climate-related disasters in real time.
About Sceye
Founded in 2014, Sceye is an aerospace company dedicated to advancing stratospheric technology to connect people and protect the planet. Sceye leads the High-Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS) industry, focusing on universal connectivity, climate monitoring, natural resource management, and disaster prevention.
About Mawarid:
Established in 1968, Mawarid Holding Company (MHC) is a leading Saudi corporation with a diverse portfolio spanning, but not limited to, ICT, satellite, and digital solutions. MHC has been a player in the global communications landscape, including its role as a founder and shareholder in Iridium Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: IRDM) since the early 1990s and its operations in various ICT and media sectors across the Middle East (e.g., Salam, TLS, ATSS, "Noorsat: Geo-operator").
Media Contact:
Jasmine Wallsmith
jw@sceye.com
** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **
Sceye Secures Funds in Series C Round Led by Mawarid Holding Company
SINGAPORE, Sept. 19, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Although sustainability is a growing business priority, only 6% of business leaders report that their organisation has completed at least one round of sustainability implementation. This is in comparison to 14% from NTUC LearningHub's Special Report on Sustainability 2022. Nevertheless, a positive outlook remains as nearly three quarters of business leaders (72%) share that their organisation will begin its sustainability journey within the next five years or more, marking a 6% increase from the 2022 report.
Employees perceive possessing the knowledge and skills necessary to understand and implement sustainability initiatives at the workplace (6% to a large extent, 55% to a moderate extent, 34% to a small extent). However, more than four in five business leaders (15% strongly agree, 71% somewhat agree) say that there is a gap in expertise and skill sets around sustainability in their organisation where they seek skills like climate change sustainability (30%), environmental management system framework or policy (29%), risk management (29%), sustainability risk and impact assessment (29%), and Environmental and Social Governance (28%).
These are some of the key findings from NTUC LearningHub's Sustainability for Business Resilience Report 2024, which investigates sustainability as a business imperative, the current state of sustainability efforts in organisations, and the critical role of training and certifications. Based on survey involving over 150 business leaders and 350 full-time working professionals, the report also highlights the in-demand job roles and skills that inform and shape individuals' career progression while strengthening the business' resilience.
While nearly a third of business leaders (30%) report having sent their employees for sustainability-related training in the past year, only one in ten employees (11%) report attending sustainability-related training and about half (46%) are unaware of the available programmes in the market. This occurs while both business leaders and employees express similar concerns over training.
When sending employees for training, business leaders grapple with employees being too busy with work to attend training (43%), difficulty in identifying industry-recognised courses (39%) and relevant external training providers or centres (32%), insufficient budget for training programmes (36%), and resistance to change among employees (35%). Meanwhile, employees cite being too busy with work to attend training (43%), training programmes not being fully funded by their company (29%), having no one to cover their work while they are away for training (28%), uncertainty about their skills gaps (28%), and limited in-house training programmes offered by their organisation (27%) as key challenges.
Although nearly four in five business leaders (17% strongly agree, 63% somewhat agree) agree that their organisation has clearly communicated how employees can contribute towards the organisation's sustainability goals, both groups have differing views on the top motivators for sustainability initiatives implementation. Employees report the top three motivators to be cost savings (46%), complying with rules and regulations (44%), and responding to market demand (36%). On the other hand, business leaders cite responding to market demand (54%) as the primary driver, followed by achieving cost savings (49%), and managing risks (43%).
Moreover, one in three employees (33%) lack the confidence in their organisation's ability to effectively implement sustainability initiatives, citing unclear sustainability goals (41%), insufficient budget allocated to sustainability initiatives (34%), and lack of sustainability training programmes (32%) as primary reasons.
Commenting on the report's findings, Mr Tay Ee Learn, Chief Sector Skills Officer, NTUC LearningHub, says, "The findings suggest a possible disconnect between business leaders and employees, likely stemming from a lack of common understanding and therefore shared goal in the journey to implement sustainability initiatives within organisations. Transparent communication is key, but organisations must first develop a clear sustainability roadmap with defined goals to ensure everyone is aligned. This involves prioritising workforce training and development to prepare employees for new and refreshed green roles. Leveraging resources like the NTUC Awareness, Resources, Community (ARC) Framework, which offers sustainability solutions to employers while facilitating the training of their workers, can help organisations address their challenges. Investing in the development of their human capital will go a long way to reassure the workforce that they are valued, allowing both organisations and workers to remain competitive in a dynamic landscape."
To download the Sustainability for Business Resilience Report 2024, please visit https://www.ntuclearninghub.com/media/research-reports/2024/Sustainability. To find out more about the courses, training, and grants, please contact NTUC LearningHub at www.ntuclearninghub.com.
About NTUC LearningHub
NTUC LearningHub is the leading Continuing Education and Training provider in Singapore which aims to transform the lifelong employability of working people. Since our corporatisation in 2004, we have been working with employers and individual learners to provide learning solutions in areas such as Infocomm Technology, Generative AI & Cloud, Healthcare, Retail & Food Services, Employability & Literacy, Business Excellence, Workplace Safety & Health, Security, Human Resources & Coaching and Foreign Workers Training.
To date, NTUC LearningHub has helped over 29,000 organisations and achieved more than 2.6 million training places across more than 2,900 courses with a pool of about 900 certified trainers. As a Total Learning Solutions provider to organisations, we also forge partnerships to offer a wide range of relevant end-to-end training. Besides in-person training, we also offer instructor-led virtual live classes (VLCs) and asynchronous online learning. The NTUC LearningHub Learning eXperience Platform (LXP) — a one-stop online learning mobile application — offers timely, bite-sized and quality content for learners to upskill anytime and anywhere. Beyond learning, LXP also serves as a platform for jobs and skills development for both workers and companies.
For more information, visit www.ntuclearninghub.com.
Press Contact
Gabriel J. Tan
Senior Executive, Public Relations
Email: gabriel.tan@ntuclearninghub.com
Vaiishnavi Karnan
Senior Executive, Public Relations
Email: vaiishnavi@ntuclearninghub.com
Zulaikha Zulkiflee
Manager, Brand & Communications
Email: zulaikha@ntuclearninghub.com
** The press release content is from PR Newswire. Bastille Post is not involved in its creation. **
Sustainability implementation in organisations is still a Work-in-Progress amid lack of training and employee uncertainty over organisation goals
